Harvard Fire District Adjusts Tax Request, Returns To Voters

October 28, 1996|By Mark R. Madler. Special to the Tribune.

Facing a shortage of on-call personnel because of the outside demands on volunteers, the Harvard Fire Protection District will go to the voters next month for a tax-rate increase to pay for more on-call firefighters.

The district seeks to raise its property-tax levy to 39.9 cents from 23 cents per $100 assessed value. The owner of a $100,000 home would see the tax paid to the fire protection district increase to $119 per year from about $68, according to the district.

An election proposal in March to raise the tax rate to 50 cents per $100 assessed valuation from 23 cents was defeated.

To gain support for the new proposal, fire and rescue personnel have been speaking with service clubs and other organizations. A public forum has been scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the fire station at Division and Diggins Streets.

"We're attempting to explain what the increase is and what we will do with the money and just what it means on the ballot," said Jim Carbonetti, the district's treasurer.

Since the spring measure's failure, the district has tightened its belt by merging the fire department and rescue squad, officials said. The district now has two people at the station during the day to respond only to ambulance calls.

If the ballot measure passes, rescue squad Lt. Tim Joosten said, the district would put three more people on duty at the station to respond to fires.

Instead of having full-time firefighters and emergency medical technicians who would receive benefits and overtime pay, the district would use personnel who earn an hourly rate.

"That's the cheaper way of going," Joosten said. "With the merger, they have a larger pool to choose from."

The pay rates would range from $8 to $13 an hour depending on the person's training, he said. The district has 55 members available to it, 80 percent of whom are cross-trained as firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

The district has seen an increase in the number of fire calls to 255 to date in 1996 from 200 in the 1991 calendar year, officials said.

Ambulance calls, reported by the fiscal year starting May 1, totaled 450 in fiscal 1991 and are projected to reach 800 in the current fiscal year, officials said.

As the number of calls increases, the availability of volunteers to fight fires and take people to the hospital has decreased, officials said. Gone are the days when many large local businesses would allow employees to leave in the middle of the day to answer a call.

"You can't blame them for not letting them go," Joosten said. "If you lose that employee you're down, you're losing that business."

If the ballot measure is successful, the district's budget would see an increase of $200,000. Along with the added personnel to be on call seven days a week, the district wishes to upgrade and maintain equipment, do fire inspections and buy a "smokehouse" to teach schoolchildren what to do in case of a fire.

If the ballot measure does not pass, district trustees are ready to start charging a fee for ambulance calls--$350 per ambulance call, and up to $750 per person in a car accident.

Joosten said his biggest fear is that seniors on fixed incomes would not call for an ambulance because they have neither the money nor the insurance to pay for it.